Priority issues, study designs and geographical distribution in nutrition journals

ABSTRACT: Introduction: The increased number of articles published in nutrition is a reflection of the relevance to scientific community. The characteristics and quality of nutritional studies determine whether readers can obtain valid conclusions from them, as well as their usefulness for evidence-based strategic policies. Objective: To determine the characteristics of papers published in nutrition journals. Method: Descriptive study design. We reviewed 330 original papers published between January-June 2007. From: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), Journal of Nutrition, European Journal Nutrition, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Public Health Nutrition. We classified them according to the subjects studied; risk factors, study design and country of origin. Results: Almost half the papers studied healthy people (53.3%). The most frequent illness was obesity (13.9%). Food consumption is the most frequent risk factor (63.3%). Social factors appear exclusively only in 3.6% of the papers. Clinical trials were the most common analytical design (31.8%), mainly in the AJCN (45.6%). Cross-sectional studies were the most frequent type of observational design (37.9%). Ten countries produced over half of the papers (51.3%). The US publishes the highest number of papers (20.6%), whilst developing countries make only scarce contributions to scientific literature on nutrition. Conclusions: Most of the papers had inferential power. They generally studied both healthy and sick subjects, coinciding with the aims of international scientific policies. However, the topics covered reflect a clear bias, prioritizing problems pertaining to developed countries. Social determinants of health should also be considered, along with behavioral and biological risk factors.

• Autores: González Zapata, Laura Inés; Ruíz Cantero, María Teresa; Clemente Gómez, Vicente; Ortiz Moncada, Rocio
• Tipo de recurso: Review article
• Fecha de publicación: 2010
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/23491
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/10495/23491
• Palabra clave: Research priorities; Epidemiologic Studies; Estudios Epidemiológicos; Ubicaciones Geográficas; Geographic Locations; Nutritional Sciences; Ciencias de la Nutrición
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/co/